Movie Edit Pro Premium v17.0.2

I must be losing my mind but I do not see anything under templates or effects that allows me to draw a simple rectangle.

Hi

. . . . Movie Edit Pro Premium v17.0.2 . . . .

Being a little pedantic 😟 - the last three digits of the version number are missing, these are actually very important.

. . . . that allows me to draw a simple rectangle. . . . .

The above reply was based on the information given, based on this additional information - you cannot do this, MEP on its own does not have a drawing function. There are however several methods of achieving this.

1. There are some rectangular images in MEP under Templates, Image objects, Color fields, however they have a restricted colour range which you can position / resize this in MEP and adjust the colours to some extent using the Video effects, Colour and Colour correction effects.
    
2. Use an image editing program to create the necessary rectangle or shape - this is the method I use. I would recommend at least the same resolution as the project, or preferably double the resolution, and position / resize this in MEP.
   
   I would recommend you create and save the images as PNG files with a transparent background - this will save a lot of issues in MEP with having to use Chromakey to get rid of the background
    
3. Use a program like Xara Photo and Graphics Designer which integrates into MEP to create the rectangle and any other shapes you require- John CB ( @browj2 ) is an expert using this, hopefully he will chip in on this one.

HTH

John EB

17.0.2.159. I should have provided that last number to begin with.

Under Templates > Image Objects, I don't see Color fields. I see: Border, Comic, Deko, Full, Fun, Mix, Pointer, Text.

Regarding your second suggestion, how would an image editing app help me to draw a rectangular box in the clip?

@randy-j40

Hi,

Did you download and install the extra content? See under Help, Install Extra Content.

To answer your question, draw a rectangle (or anything else) in a drawing program, save it as a png with transparency, and import it onto the timeline on a higher numbered track than your video, move and resize it using the Effect, View/Animation, Size/Position commands. The images that are under Templates > Image Objects: Border, Comic, Deko, Full, Fun, Mix, Pointer, Text, are either static images that someone drew or animations. You place these on a higher-numbered track, position and resize as needed.

For the third method, . For this, as John EB mentioned, you need Xara Designer Pro X or Xara Photo & Graphics. The latter you can get from the Magix.com site or ir you are quick, you can get it and much more for 20$ on the Humble Bundle site. With Xara, you can do much more than just draw rectangles and it integrates nicely with MEP.

In the video, I made an animation. If you don't need animation, just draw what you want, where you want it to show up, and exit back to MEP. I indicated in the video not to use the exit button; it now works properly.

HTH

John CB

See also the video clips in this post (in French).

Thank you for the suggestions.

I was hoping that the video editor had something like below, where we can draw geometric shapes directly in the video clip:

https://s5.postimg.org/qboa96sfb/AVS.png

I hope that MAGIX will consider adding a similar feature in the future.

Hi Randy,

Did you look at any of the links and videos that I gave you? Xara belongs to Magix. I doubt that Magix would add in a drawing feature to a video program when they have Xara to do that. Xara is much more powerful than the AVS tool that you showed, Xtremely much more powerful. Consider it this way, if you want the drawing module in MEP, then it is an add-on. Just get Xara P&GD from Humble Bundle for 20$ like I said, and you have something that you can use from inside MEP or alone. I don't think that you understand the power of this tool. If you don't want to pay the 20$ for a 50$+ program, then at least download the trial and try it out for yourself.

John CB

I saw all videos. It probably doesn't help that I don't speak French, but I didn't actually see any tutorials, only finished models with floating images, which doesn't look like what I need. I understand that I can import images in MEP and animate them, but it's not what I need.

I need to draw a geometric shape (line, rectangle, ellipse, etc.) , which I can then re-shape on the fly, ideally without having to go to another software. E.g. I draw a straight vertical line but then I want to tilt it a bit to one side, or draw a rectangle and then I want to extent one of its dimensions, or make the border line thicker, etc.. I just don't see how these things can be done within MEP itself. If for every minor re-shape I have to go back to an image editor and then import a new image into MEP, that sounds tedious, unless I'm misunderstanding how Xara can integrate with MEP (for which I have not found any guides or tutorials here). But if Xara is just meant to be used as an external image editor, I already have such software.

You mentioned a drawing module for MEP. First time I'm hearing about this. Is this what Xara adds to MEP, or is that something completely separate?

Maybe the things I want to do are unusual..? I dunno, it just seems to me that any basic editor that can add titles should be able to add some other basic shapes. Say I'm making a tutorial clip where I add some tittles, and then I want to underline something important by drawing a line or an arrow, or box/circle around some element for emphasis... just basic things like that.

I just checked Cyberlink Director and it also lacks this feature. It has some free hand drawing tool, but no geometry shapes. So far only AVS can add the shapes I need, but it's lacking in other aspects that I use MEP for.

For some reason, the first link that I gave went back here. Here is the correct one.

Thiss is the main one that you should have seen. I have more that I have posted. You will only find possibilities like this with the top end programs $$$.

If you want a basic shape, then create a bunch and save them in a folder, create a link to the folder in the Media Pool and then when you need them they are there. Just drag one onto the timeline, resize and position.

Here is a screen shot of the Effects, Design elements, Present (presentation), with Arrow09 highlighted, added to track 3 and showing up in the preview monitor. If you don't have this, then you didn't download and install the extra content. I use this arrow in my tutorials. I just resize and position/rotate as necessary.

John CB

OK, now that you posted the actual video I see what you're talking about. Yes, that method with Xara does what I need, and then some. It integrates nicely with MEP.

Thank you!

p.s. I'm curious, if I hadn't posted in the forums about this, how could I have known that MEP works with Xara like that? This is not mentioned anywhere in the features or tutorials sections. That video tutorial is missing in the MEP tutorial page too.

Hi Randy,

Good point and one that I have made to Magix and Xara more than once, including to a marketing person. It seems that I am the only one on the English side of the forum using Xara and talking about it. There are some good tutorials on the French side. If you read the manual or search for Xara in the MEP or VPX manuals, you will see the various uses described, but you don't know about this until the product has been purchased and you actually go through a lot of the manual. On the Xara side, there is really nothing. I have mentioned the uses of Xara on the Talk Graphics forum (Xara users) many times and shown some examples. Magix should really add the fact that Xara is a good complement to MEP/VPX, just like the audio programs.

I just did up a short Christmas video message and I had occasion to use Xara to quickly create both a mask and an overlay object get rid of a truck trailer and some objects in the snow from one video clip. My wife insisted and I'm glad she did. I also did another one to get the angel from the top of the Christmas tree to show up at the top of the steeple of the local Church. The effects are not perfect, but they don't look like effects; they go unnoticed, which is the goal.

With truck:

Truck masked and object in snow in front of truck with overlay:

I made the mask for the truck in Xara by simply doing what I indicated in the video, right-click on my clip, Create overlay... and drew around the truck but with some zigzags so that the tree would look more natural. I feather-edged the mask and exported to a png, undid the feathering and went back to video editor, used a copy of the same shot to put trees where the mask was, then replaced the XAR file with the feather-edged mask. The animator does not handle feather-edging, unfortunately, only transparency. I did a similar thing for the overlay to hide the objects in the snow, except that instead of a mask, I used an object overlay with colouring to match the surrounding snow. Again, I feathered the object to get better blending, and replaced the unfeathered XAR object with the exported object. Of course if it was something more serious, I could have used gradient fill in Xara to get different shading/colouring on the object. Since Xara is a fully-blown vector drawing editor, there are a lot of possibilities on the drawing side and morphing or tweening over time in the animator, and whatever you draw comes back onto the timeline.

Angel on steeple:

With more time, I could have added a lighting effect, but the main action was us talking in front of the Church. I put the angel on the steeple because there was no light up there and I felt something was needed.

John CB

@browj2

. . . . . It seems that I am the only one on the English side of the forum using Xara and talking about it . . . . .

In my experience you are the only one using it on the English side. 😭

Similar situation with MEP and VPX menu editing capabilities, these are quite restrictive once you have had a look at DVD Architect which comes as an add-on with Vegas Pro and is available separately.

It gets no mention at all here apart from my occasional recommendations when a user cannot achieve what they want in MEP or VPX.

DVD Architect for me is as Xara is to you, I have made a similar proposal that DVDA is a good complement for MEP and VPX, particularly for users who require more functionality when creating disc menus. I originally used DVD Lab Pro2 which is now a legacy product with no BD support.

I do not use Xara because I have a third party image editing program working with MEP and VPX in a similar manner, however I do not think it may be as 'integrated' as Xara is - I will need to do some testing.

John EB

Hi,

Initially Xara was too costly you can use Inkscape (free) or CorelDraw Student version or any drawing software to make shape but if my old Pinnacle made easily square, rectangle circle and ellipse can do this many years ago may be programmation can add shapes that we can fill because many subtitle on TV are rectangle about 30% transparency with title over. The title function can be offer some shape to fill directly.

Regards,

YR